Join us tomorrow, 1/24 at 1:30ET/10:30PT for the third edition of our 'Programmatic in the future' series, as Joel Aranson, Vice President of Media Operations & Technology and AOD Liaison for Digitas, and David Chiang, Vice President of Monetization at CBS Interactive talk about the ways in which they’re leveraging programmatic channels to buy and sell inventory, the challenges that they face and what excites them about the future. Log into your Google+ account and look for the Hangout on Air in the Think with Google +page stream. Hit the play button to tune in.

In our last edition, Mario Diez, CEO at QuadrantONE spoke with David Hertog, Product Marketing Manager at Google, about the transformative effect programmatic technologies are having on the industry even though they are still in their infancy.

Direct sales teams are here to stay
Mario debunked the myth that direct sales teams and media planning teams are going to be replaced by programmatic channels. He emphasized that programmatic channels eliminate some of the procedural inefficiencies of traditional buying channels but reiterated that it’s not “plug and play” and businesses will continue to be driven by human relationships. He encourages publishers to align their organizational structures to take advantage of this new trend and also learn from it.

Advertiser goals will inform how they buy inventory
Programmatic has given publishers tools to work with different buying entities and expand their capability to meet an advertiser’s different goals. For example, publishers can work with advertisers directly, developing custom solutions, to drive impact and engagement for them, or offer exchange based transactions to help them optimize their buys. “It’s not a one size fit all, any more”, says Mario and he encourages publishers to talk to their advertisers to understand their goals and propose solutions, accordingly.

Publishers need to invest in data infrastructure
Today, Mario says, “micro-markets” sit between publishers and advertisers and are monetized by “audience data, verification, and so forth”. Publishers are sitting on a gold mine of audience data that can now serve as another revenue channel for them beyond their media assets. It’s important for publishers to aggregate that data in meaningful ways to drive ROI for buyers and increase the value for their inventory.